The contours of when a defendant is subject to personal jurisdiction depends on the facts of a particular case, as well as the case law precedent from the court where the case was filed. As a result, it’s always a good idea for a company to consider jurisdiction before initiating or responding to a lawsuit.

One of our more popular offerings at ZVMLaw is our flat rate corporate counsel subscriptions which allow small to mid-sized companies to have the benefit of an in-house legal department at a fraction of the cost. Here are ten ways our outside general counsel subscriptions can help your business.

Even though we don’t often use accents—also known as diacritics—in everyday English, brand and product names are filled with words containing diacritics—from Hermès, L'Oréal Paris, and Lancôme, to Uterqüe and Castañer. To ensure the enforceability of your trademark, you will want to make sure to include things like accents and cedillas if the context calls for it in your trademark application.

In light of the recent large settlements and this even larger jury verdict for violations of BIPA, companies doing business in Illinois should expect more BIPA suits with even higher settlement demands and should closely monitor any biometric information that may be collected from residents of Illinois (by the company or its vendors) to ensure that any such collection complies with BIPA.

Google, Snapchat, Facebook, and TikTok have all recently settled multi-million dollar class action claims for alleged violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”). What is BIPA, and why are tech companies paying out millions of dollars for violating it?

Case law is increasingly clear that nonparty subpoenas should not be a substitute for traditional discovery or a workaround when a party fails to get the information via more appropriate means. This blog post outlines the risks involved in relying on nonparty subpoenas to obtain discovery.

Parties in litigation can file requests to inspect the opposing party’s computers or other electronic devices for evidence to support their claims. However, due to the intrusive nature of such requests, courts won’t just rubber stamp any request to inspect. This blog post discusses the requirements necessary to support such a request.

Creating and protecting a distinct and eye-grabbing app icon can help users to quickly identify your app on their device. You can and should consider protecting your app icon through trademark registration, copyright registration, and trade dress protection.

The new Copyright Claims Board (CCB) provides a more accessible, streamlined, and cost effective option to resolve copyright disputes with under $30,000 at issue than filing a lawsuit in federal court. This blog post covers everything you need to know about the CCB.

Trademarks are typically thought of as slogans, logos, or brand names, but trademarks can be so much more. This post discusses 5 unconventional types of trademarks.

While NFTs are relatively new, U.S. copyright law treats NFTs the same as any other traditional work, which has led to many misunderstandings among those who mint, purchase, and sell NFTs. Here are the five things to know about NFTs and U.S. copyright law.

With the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in recent years, creative works can now be produced based on decisions made by computers, without specific direction from a human author. This raises the question of whether such tools can create a “work for hire” for a human owner, such that the work is protected by U.S. copyright law, even though no human is directly involved in the creation of the work.

Many people believe that their use of copyrighted material is “fair use” and not copyright infringement. However, a high percentage of those people later find out that their use was not covered by the fair use doctrine. The following are common misconceptions about when the fair use doctrine applies to use of copyrighted material.

Generally, ownership of copyright vests in the author of the work, a/k/a the person who created the work. One exception to this general rule is the “work for hire” doctrine, under which ownership of the copyright vests in the author’s employer or person for whom the author prepared the work. However, the work for hire doctrine is narrower than many people expect. The following is an overview of the work for hire doctrine and when it applies.

If you are wondering whether your business website needs a privacy policy, the short answer is probably that it does. The following is a basic overview of privacy policies will get you started.

One of the first big legal decisions that entrepreneurs make when staring a business is selecting the appropriate legal entity for their business. The two most popular options are a corporation and a limited liability corporation (LLC). So, what’s best structure for your business?

The purpose of a trademark is to distinguish goods/services and their source from other goods/services in the marketplace. To further that purpose, federal courts have created a sliding scale under which the degree of protection a mark receives depends on its level of distinctiveness. The five categories, in order from least distinctive to most distinctive, are: (1) generic marks, (2) descriptive marks, (3) suggestive marks, (4) arbitrary marks, and (5) fanciful marks. Below is a brief description of each category and the level of protection a trademark that falls in that category receives under federal law.

Social media influencer marketing has become a mainstream and important marketing channel for brands to connect with consumers on social media platforms as well as a way for influencers to earn additional income. However, many influencers aren’t aware of the legal requirements that apply to their endorsements. Here is an overview of the basic legal rules for social medial influencers.

Your business name and brand are some of its most important and valuable assets. Here are the basics of what you need to know to protect your business trademarks.